Elizabeth Ferris

Elizabeth Ferris is research professor with the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and also serves as a nonresident senior fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. From January to September 2016, she also served as senior advisor to the U.N. General Assembly’s Summit for Refugees and Migrants in New York.

From 2006 to 2015, she was a senior fellow and co-director of the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement where she worked to support understanding and protection of internally displaced persons. Prior to joining Brookings, she spent 20 years working in the field of humanitarian assistance, most recently in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Council of Churches. She has also served as the director of the Church World Service’s Immigration and Refugee Program; as research director for the Life & Peace Institute in Uppsala, Sweden; and as a Fulbright professor at the Universidad Autónoma de México. Her teaching experience has included positions at Lafayette College, Miami University, and Pembroke State University. She has written extensively on refugee, migration, and humanitarian issues, including “The Politics of Protection: The Limits of Humanitarian Action” (Brookings Institution Press, 2011) and most recently, “Consequences of Chaos: Syria’s Humanitarian Crisis and the Failure to Protect,” with Kemal Kirsici (Brookings Institution Press, 2016). She received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University and her master’s and doctorate from the University of Florida.

Elizabeth Ferris is research professor with the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and also serves as a nonresident senior fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution. From January to September 2016, she also served as senior advisor to the U.N. General Assembly’s Summit for Refugees and Migrants in New York.

From 2006 to 2015, she was a senior fellow and co-director of the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement where she worked to support understanding and protection of internally displaced persons. Prior to joining Brookings, she spent 20 years working in the field of humanitarian assistance, most recently in Geneva, Switzerland at the World Council of Churches. She has also served as the director of the Church World Service’s Immigration and Refugee Program; as research director for the Life & Peace Institute in Uppsala, Sweden; and as a Fulbright professor at the Universidad Autónoma de México. Her teaching experience has included positions at Lafayette College, Miami University, and Pembroke State University. She has written extensively on refugee, migration, and humanitarian issues, including “The Politics of Protection: The Limits of Humanitarian Action” (Brookings Institution Press, 2011) and most recently, “Consequences of Chaos: Syria’s Humanitarian Crisis and the Failure to Protect,” with Kemal Kirsici (Brookings Institution Press, 2016). She received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University and her master’s and doctorate from the University of Florida.